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Sauce

Sharp or Piquante Sauce

A sharp sauce made with shallots, vinegar, gherkins, capers, and Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 405 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sharp or Piquante Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Reduce the vinegar

  1. Combine shallots, vinegar, bay leaf, and thyme in a saucepan.

  2. Cover and reduce to half the quantity.

  3. Strain the mixture into another saucepan.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add gherkins, capers, and Espagnole sauce.

  2. Boil for a few minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Shallot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Capers + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shallots
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as they cook down in the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the piquant character of the sauce.
Gherkins
Add tart, acidic bite and a crisp, chopped texture to the finished sauce.
Capers
Contribute briny, sharp flavor that brightens the richness of the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Supplies the body, thickness and savory richness that the sauce is built on.

The step that matters

Reducing the vinegar mixture to half. As liquid evaporates, the vinegar and aromatics concentrate, so the flavor becomes stronger and sharper. Reducing too far can make the base harsh once the Espagnole sauce is added, so watch the volume closely.

Flavor stand-ins for the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, capers, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Dillabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, capers, vinegar, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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